Every parent has done a few things they’re afraid will scar their children for life, both physically and mentally. No one’s perfect, after all. But there are some people in this world that have done some spectacularly stupid things to their children, and were either proud enough or oblivious enough to not only take pictures of these bonding moments, but to post them online as well. Troy Osinoff has made it his business to collect these precious images of mankind’s destruction of the gene pool, and shares them with the world on his popular website, MyBadParent.com. Now Troy has compiled some of his favorites from his photo album and published them in book form: My Bad Parent, which is about the age old axiom “Do as I say, not as I did, because if you do that, you’ll probably end up in jail.”

Ok, you get three guesses. Who do you think is having more fun in this picture?

Contained in this fun sized 161 page paperback is what one might call the Hall of Fame of Troy’s website, grouped into chapters according to theme: kids and sex, kids and booze, kids and near cases of child abuse, you know, all the good stuff you remember from when you were small.

I picked up a copy of this book recently, and found it to be very well put together. Its small size and picture dominated format make it a great coffee table reader or holiday present for a coworker or extended family member with a twisted sense of humor, or any sense of humor at all. Its pretty hard not to laugh at some of the antics contained within. I won’t spoil any of the fun for you, just know that within the pages of this book are the following gems:

1. A baby duct taped to the wall (with her stuffed duck strung up next to her)

2. Another baby wearing condoms as socks (while playing with another condom as a balloon.)

3. The saddest baby of them all, being posed with what is quite probably the decomposed body of her grandmother.

4. A child being fed to wild raccoons.

5. A BABY WITH A SHOTGUN.

Yep, now you want this book, don’t you? I thought so. You can pick it up at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or your local bookstore if they carry it.

Last month, ThisBlogRules brought you the coffee table that doubles up as a fully-functional Nintendo controller. Now we have another coffee table that doubles up as another gizmo, although this time it’s a slightly more primitive, possibly more nostalgic piece of technology. Designed by Seattle-based artist Jeff Skierka, this table has a distinct resemblance to an audio cassette tape, albeit a massively oversized one that will make its owner feel like a Borrower.

Now, I’m aware some of our younger readers may be confused as to what a cassette tape actually is: to put it basically, a cassette tape is a CD that’s rectangular and not circular, bulky and not slim, lame and not not-so-lame. It also sometimes benefits from the use of a pencil – you figure out how.

Here are the technical details on Skierka’s one-of-a-kind mixtape table. Sized at 47.25″ x 30″ x 5″, it is twelve times the size of a regular cassette tape. It is made of reclaimed maple, walnut and lucite, and is fitted with a glass top. It’s also completely reversible, with a side A and a side B (just like the real thing!), although sadly it does not actually play any music – well, not until someone designs a cassette tape player the size of a bungalow, that is.

Here’s a must-have piece of living room furniture for all you pasty-faced gamers out there: a coffee table that doubles up as a fully-functional Nintendo NES controller! Thanks to Charles Lushear, the product’s designer, you no longer have to worry about being unable to rescue Zelda once your fingers become crooked from all that intricate, tiresome button-pushing: you can just switch to this gigantic controller and thump your fists or the palms of your hands against the oversized buttons, and voila, your perilous quest continues!

Standing at 18″ tall, 42″ long and 18.25″ wide, the piece (which costs $3,500) consists of maple, mahogany and walnut, has been constructed with dovetail joinery and rests on mid century modern legs. It comes with a rectractable cord that can connect to your Nintendo console when you wish to start playing away, and also a glass covering for when you wish for it to function as just an ordinary (or not so ordinary) coffee table. It’s also a handy device for mythical giants – hey, they like Zelda, too! [Read more…]